


Remus the Rat

by StarStorm21



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Mild Language, from remus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24363418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarStorm21/pseuds/StarStorm21
Summary: Remus turns into a rat to scare Patton but underestimates how much Patton loves small fluffy creatures.
Relationships: Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 22
Kudos: 94





	Remus the Rat

**Author's Note:**

> Took longer than it was supposed to because it started turning into angst and I had to rewrite a lot to make it fluff again.

Remus was bored. That was a very bad thing for Remus to be, because you see, when Remus was board he would find ways to entertain himself. And nothing was more entertaining to Remus than getting one of the other sides to scream in fright.

He rose up in the common room looking around for his next victim. There wasn’t anyone in the living room, but he did hear soft humming coming from the kitchen. He turned and saw Patton was making cookies. Perfect. One well timed scare and all the cookies would go crashing to the ground, leaving them all for him.

Some might find that Remus having a sweet tooth weird considering his loud and proud proclamation for all flavors of disgusting, but in reality, his taste buds worked just the same as any other side. Just because he was more willing to try haggis and escargot didn’t mean he didn’t like more accepted foods. Heck most of the stuff he ate to gross or freak out the other sides and Thomas, such as deodorant and severed limbs, were mostly a combination of sculpted marshmallow fondant and chocolate decorated with edible paint, corn syrup and red food dye.

Point was he liked sweet things too and if all the cookies were on the ground no one would question him eating them off of the floor.

He was getting off track, his first goal was to scare Patton. The question was how?

Scaring Patton wasn’t that hard. He could just pop in as himself and shout boo and get the fright he wanted that way, but that was boring. He was creativity after all he could do better than that. Spiders were also way too obvious, but he didn’t really want to put too much effort into a small jump scare.

He got it.

With a grin on his face he let himself shrink down as black fur covered his body, claws protruded from his fingertips, and a long naked tail spouted out of his back. He scurried over to the kitchen and waited for his moment to strike.

He didn’t have to wait long as Patton had just finished cleaning up and the oven timer started to beep. He snapped on some oven mits and slowly took the sheet of cookies out. This was his moment.

Remus darted out into the kitchen and let out high pitched squeaks as he ran around Patton’s feet.

Patton, however, did not react in the way Remus predicted. Instead of a screech of fright followed by tossing the cookies everywhere and running, he set the tray down and looked down at Remus with a big smile.

That was far from the reaction Remus wanted. He was just about to change back with a pout when suddenly there were hands around him. He let out an alarmed squeak, he would completely blame on being a rat at the time and nothing to do with fear, and felt himself being lifted up.

Apparently, Patton had snapped away his mits and scooped Remus up to be at eye level, that dumb grin still on his face.

“Aw, hey there little fella. What’s a little cutie like you doing here?”

What?

No seriously what the fuck was going on? Why wasn’t Patton scared? Why was he holding him and cooing at him like he was adorable? And why were his hands so warm and gentle?

No, he needed to focus. This prank had obviously failed, he should just change back and scare him that way.

He was just about to do that when he felt a finger scratch behind his ear and all thought processes stopped. That felt nice. That felt really nice. What was he doing again?

“Aw, you like that don’t you buddy?”

Patton’s eyes then lit up with an idea. He stopped scratching Remus’ head just long enough to snap the hoodie he tied around his shoulders on over his polo, allowing him to place Remus in the front pocket.

“There you go. All nice and snuggly.”

Remus’ mind snapped back into focus when the scratching stopped. However, before he could resume his plan of changing back, he was surrounded by soft squishy warmth on all sides. This was actually really comfortable. Maybe staying in here wouldn’t be so bad? Wait no he was doing something. What was it again? Curse his easily distracted brain.

Patton quickly finished putting the cookies away to cool and cleaned up with Remus in his hoodie pocket before heading out of the kitchen. Remus poked his head out of the pocket to see Patton was heading up stairs and towards his room.

Once in Patton’s room Remus was hit by how warm it was in there. Not the dry desert kind of heat Janus’ room was, but more of a humid summer day. He looked around to see the room nearly plastered in things from Thomas is childhood.

Strangely he noticed that while everything was arranged in a way that appealed to the side that would be standing in each spot if this was Thomas’ living room, certain items seemed to make themselves more noticeable to him. The table full of school stuff behind Logan’s spot seemed to highlight the dissections from Biology and the Lord of the Flies book from English. The staircase where Virgil sat was practically wall papered in Thomas’ old dark and edgy poems and stories from middles school. By the TV where Roman would stand, were stacks of programs and pictures from Thomas’ old performances, his roll as JD from Heathers front and center. Everywhere he looked there was another thing that showed his influence throughout Thomas’ life. It made him feel… weird. Happy but more squishy?

“This is my room, it’s where I keep all of Thomas’ memories linked to strong feelings.”

The way he said it made the squishy feeling stronger. These memories were important, and he’d made some of them. For once Remus’ mind was blank.

Patton then placed Remus down on the couch and immediately he went over to Thomas’ old glow worm. He always loved how creepy that thing was.

“Oh, you like that one huh? Let me show you something.”

Patton pressed a button on the back of the toy and its whole head started lighting up, making the thing look possessed. Remus squeaked in delight. He was totally making an army of these in his part of the imagination once he was back to normal.

Patton then sat down next to him and turned on the TV. He flipped through a few movies and shows, and Remus couldn’t help but notice a few of the titles. Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Gremlins were just a few he noticed among the Winnie the Poos and Dragon Tales.

That squishy feeling was back.

Patton eventually picked a movie and Remus did a double take. Secret of NIMH? Sure, it was nice to see that Patton had movies like this, but he didn’t expect him to actually pick one.

“I think you’ll like this one. It’s about a mouse mama trying to save her sick kiddo and it’s her love of him that saves the day.”

Oh right, suddenly the choice made a lot more sense. Of course, Patton would like movies with parental love being the main focus.

“There are also rats in it and most of them are good guys too.”

If Remus could roll his eyes he would. Like he cared about that kind of stuff. He just wanted to see the creepy owl and rats’ lab experiment backstory.

They both sat back an watched the movie. At some point Patton had grabbed Remus, hugging him close when some the more suspenseful scenes came up. Remus found it kind of funny and he was enjoying himself. Why did he want to leave again?

After the movie ended Patton gave a large yawn and looked at the nearby digital clock.

“Looks like it’s bedtime, little buddy.”

He stood up carrying Remus upstairs and to the bedroom. Remus didn’t protest, feeling quite tired himself.

Patton placed him down on the bed which he noted felt weird, like it wasn’t completely solid. Did Patton have a fucking waterbed?

Patton came back from the bathroom dressed in light blue pjs with a lilypad design on them. He then got into the bed, sending small ripples across the surface.

Hey that was kind of fun. Maybe when he was more awake Remus would ask Patton to jump on the bed to make the ripples bigger. Yeah, that sounded like a perfect plan to his sleep addled mind.

-

Patton woke up to the sound of a loud thump next to his bed. He fumbled around for his glasses before looking around his dark room. Nothing seemed out of place. Then he remembered, his new rat friend.

He looked to the side of the bed where he’d left him but he seemed to be the only occupant. He looked around frantically for his little friend until the sound of loud obnoxious snoring hit his ears.

Patton paused in his searching and slowly peered over the side of the bed where the sounds were coming from. Upon seeing what was making the noise Patton had to clamp a hand over his mouth to stop from screaming. There on the floor, was Remus, dead asleep and limbs splayed ever which way. Actually, on second glance the image was more funny than scary, and Patton kept the hand over his mouth to stop from laughing.

Without his creepy manic grin and crazed stair, it was actually quite easy to see how he was Roman’s brother. Sure, they all looked like Thomas, but it was the small details that made them stand apart. If it weren’t for the mustache and white streak of hair Roman and Remus really would be identical.

But that still didn’t explain why Remus was asleep on his bedroom floor. Or where the rat went. Unless…

Suddenly Patton’s cheeks felt very hot. He’d been carrying Remus around and calling him cute all day.

But wait, why would he only change back now? Surely Remus of all people would not enjoy being cooed at and coddled for hours, right?

Except he didn’t know that. He didn’t really know anything about Remus aside from his initial impression, but he’d been learning a lot lately that people weren’t always what they showed. Janus wasn’t always trying to manipulate people for his own gain, Roman wasn’t the confident and brave prince he played, and even he’d been hiding that he wasn’t the up beat dad figure with all the answers he’d tried to be. Remus was a side just like everyone else in the mindscape, it wasn’t fair to judge him for just doing his job.

Remus let out another snore and shifted in his sleep, knocking his head against the bedside table. Patton frowned. That could not be a comfortable way to sleep.

Quietly he got out of bed and headed to the linen closet.

-

Remus woke up feeling like something was off, but also felt more right than anything had been in a long time. He opened his eyes to be met with a pastel blue ceiling.

Oh, right he’d been a rat yesterday and Patton had taken him to his room. Except he wasn’t a rat anymore. Remus was suddenly very awake. He was so stupid, of course he’d lose the shift once he fell asleep. He needed to change back before Patton saw him and connected the dots.

He sat up from the pillows under him and threw the blanket aside. Wait pillows? Blanket? Those weren’t there before and the only way for him to be sleeping with them was if… oh.

Embarrassment was a new emotion for Remus. He’d been shameless the majority of his existence, but apparently Patton finding out he’d been pretending to be an adorable rat for hours was finally what did it.

Just then he heard a yawn and shifting on the bed. Remus looked up to see Patton grab his glasses then look down at him.

Apparently, embarrassment could get worse.

For a moment, the two just stared at each other before Patton gave him a small smile. It wasn’t quite the blinding ones he gave to the other sides, but it was far more than he’d ever given to Remus before.

“Hey kiddo, good to see you up. You sleep ok?”

“Uh…”

For once Remus didn’t know how to reply. No crude jokes or innuendos, nothing. Eventually he just closed his mouth and nodded.

Patton smiled a bit wider and got out of bed.

“I’m going to go make breakfast for everyone. You can come if you want.”

“I… wait that’s it?”

Patton stopped on his way to the door.

“Uh, yeah what else would there be?”

“Seriously? You’re not going to ask about any of the shit that happened yesterday?”

“I mean, I don’t know why you pretended to be a rat yesterday, but you didn’t seem to want me to know it was you. So, I’m not going to talk about it unless you want me to.”

“I… no not really.”

“Ok then I won’t, and um maybe after breakfast we can watch another movie. Nothing over PG 13 though, I’m not really sure I can handle anything higher than that.”

Patton fidgeted nervously and Remus couldn’t help the smile that spread over his lips. For some reason, the idea of watching another movie with Patton sounded really nice.

“Sure, we could watch Coraline.”

It was the first movie he could think of that involved a child’s relationship with their parents. He strangely wanted a movie they could both enjoy.

The color in Patton’s face drained.

“Uh um…”

Oh, right the villain turned into a giant spider. He thought about offering a different movie but it seemed as usual his mouth was faster than his brain.

“Hey don’t worry. You can hug me again if you get scared. I’m much easier to hide behind when I’m normal sized.”

There was definitely more color on Patton’s face now, but he was also smiling as well.

“Oh uh, thanks kiddo.”

Remus decided to count that as a win before he dug himself another hole.

“No prob.”

Remus did a strange somersault type move that probably would have been impossible if he was an actual human and jumped to his feet.

“So, you said something about food?”

“Oh, right I was going to make pancakes, but I can make something else if you want.”

“Nah, pancakes sound sweet.”

Patton gave a small giggle at the pun and nodded.

“Ok my Pattonted pancakes are on their way.”

-

They did indeed watch Coraline after breakfast.

And if Patton did cling and hide behind Remus during the final fight with the Other Mother, that was another thing they agreed not to talk about.

**Author's Note:**

> Last chance to vote on my next fic:
> 
> 1\. Bounty - Sequel to Abduction. After they all settle into life on the Mind Palace a bounty hunter infiltrates their defenses to get to Remus and in the crew's attempt to avoid another attack they uncover some of Dee's backstory that even he didn't know about. 
> 
> 2\. Reverse Changeling - Remus grew up being told that faeries are purely good creatures that grant humans wishes. Gross. However, years later he saw his best friend Virgil taken away by a fairy and learns a bit more about fairies then he ever expected, including a bit of his own past.
> 
> 3\. Light Sides have Animal Traits Too - Sequel to Only Dark Sides have Animal Traits. While keeping an eye on Patton and Janus' interactions Virgil notices Logan and Remus have been spending a lot of time together as well. He then finds a black feather in front of Logan's door. 
> 
> 4\. What Lives in the Woods? - Scare all who enter, if they choose to run let them, if they choose to stay bring them to The Mother so they may become like you. Virgil the spider monster had lived by this rule ever since he was taken to The Mother himself, then Patton entered the woods.
> 
> 5\. It's Fun to Play the Villain - Thomas gets cast as the bad guy in a play and Roman questions why he'd want to play the villain. Thomas' answer gives Roman more questions so he goes to the best person he knows to answer them. Remus is all too happy to answer those questions in his own Remus way.


End file.
